Discussion Let's talk about Kakoapage which publishes msotly the standard otome isekai sotries in South korea

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Hernd234232, Apr 13, 2022.

  1. Hernd234232

    Hernd234232 Well-Known Member

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    Guys, I am writing in this forum to talk about the publisher Kakaopage and its otome isekai stories. You see Kakaopage is a subsidiary of Kakao a South Korean Internet company , They publish webnovels and even webmanhwa (a webcomic version of Manhwa aka webtoons) ,their content are mostly fantasy romance stories also known as Otome isekai where most of the stories follow the same formula , A female lead hates her old life ,then dies, then transmigrate/reincarnated in a different fantasy world (or at least unknowingly transported to a different world) ,then has a crush with a handsome fantasy person ,deal with conflicts ,confirms their love to each other,Get married and live happily ever after. It happens in every Kakaopage web novels, including their webmanhwa adaptations.

    A competitor to Kakao called Naver is also a South Korean internet company ,It too also owns a subsidiary that publishes webnovels and webmanhwa including their English division webtoons and like its competitor they too publish fantasy romance stories also known as Otome isekai, but unlike Kakao they allow some subversion and diversity in the otome isekai genre such as a story that mostly takes place in the fantasy world but with a dark tone like Your throne, A story of three people in an romance fantasy world and wants to go back to their world like How to survive a romance fantasy , A story that subverts the otome isekai genre like Survive romance (aka Survive roman X) , A story about a woman who is stuck in the beta version of the game and must break up with the male leads in order to survive and be with her crush like Ways to Break Up with the Male Lead It also (spoiler alert) has her return to her own world and meet the real version of her crush who also played the game like her. A story about a villainess of a otome isekai story who end up in the body of her author in our world like 18-year-old villainess target (now officially rewriting the villainess) and so on.

    So while Naver allows some diversity to their fantasy romance stories, Kakao just do the Lather, rinse, repeat formula in every otome isekai stories similar to Harlequin Enterprises (which is now a subsidiary to Harper Collins) does to their Romance Novels and Hallmark channel to their Christmas movies and their family oriented movies.

    So maybe I think that Kakaopage is the Korean version of Harlequin that continues the " Lather, rinse, repeat" on their Romance fantasy stories in both Webnovels and webmanhwa.

    Do you have your thoughts of Kakaopage? Write down in the comments down below.
     
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  2. Lois.

    Lois. ❲.❳ Wooosh.

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    I prefer naver over Kakao not because of the "everything's the same" complaint (because you just prolly haven't searched through Kakao deep enough or maybe have pretty high standards for stuff u read) but because of the accessibility. Kakao is definitely not global audience friendly since u need a Korean phone number and stuff to access it while anyone can access naver easily,u don't really need Korean proof or stuff unless ur coming to read advance chapters( but I might be wrong so do correct me if I am). But yes content wise I use both I don't really prefer one over the other.
     
  3. Hernd234232

    Hernd234232 Well-Known Member

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    Indeed especially that naver has English branch for their web manhwa and foreign web comics called Webtoons
     
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  4. AbrarMalik

    AbrarMalik Well-Known Member

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    Naver solely wins cuz they have WEBTOON
     
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  5. astralmech

    astralmech [ ✨ ~ snooze ] [ kr translator ] [ jpn native ]

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    I personally prefer Naver.

    Not only is Kakaopage extremely difficult (if not downright impossible) for foreign users to access, I do agree that a lot of Kakaopage novels are feeling the same these days. I love reading RoFan novels, when I go to Kakaopage to check out the new releases, so many of them are some flavor of Shoujo/Isekai/Regression/Reincarnation, with the heroine having to "avoid the male lead" or "follow the novel's plot", and it just feels so stale. Meanwhile, I'm reading several new releases from Naver right now, and none of them rely on any of those tropes. They all feel snappy and unique, and they get high marks from readers for that express reason.

    And the few truly unique Kakaopage novels that exist can a lot of times be found on Naver, Ridibooks, or even Google Play, so....I just generally never recommend Kakao.
     
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  6. Hernd234232

    Hernd234232 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I agree and as I said before Kakaopage is like the south korean version of Harlequin who does the " Lather, rinse, repeat" on their Romance fantasy stories in both Webnovels and webmanhwa.